DISTRICT maps for school board elections will remain the same for the Garden Grove Unified School District, the board decided Tuesday night Shutterstock).

By Tatum Foulger

Trustee district boundaries will remain the same for the 2022 election, the Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education decided on Tuesday night.

The board came to a unanimous decision to keep the current boundaries given no significant change in population distribution in the GGUSD has occurred since they were last revised in 2014. By law, area boundaries must be adjusted, if necessary, following each decennial federal census to create roughly equal districts. The district has reviewed the adopted trustee area plan and has determined that based on the results of the 2020 census, adjustment of the trustee area boundaries is not necessary.

Bob Harden, GGUSD board president, said the board had met with consultants and given their recommendations, are “looking at keeping the current boundaries in place for the foreseeable future.” As a result, the current trustee area boundary plan will be adopted for use in the 2022 election and elections thereafter.

Santiago history teacher honored

Also Tuesday night, David Allen, a history teacher at Santiago High School, was honored as an exceptional educator.

Last month, Allen, alongside four other teachers from the state of California, received two grants, one worth $15,000 for himself and another for $5,000 for Santiago High School courtesy of the Carlston Family Foundation grants. Allen also gets to decide how the school utilizes the award, and has vowed to allocate it to Santiago High’s scholarship fund.

Per their official website, the Carlston Family Foundation recognizes California public high school teachers who teach in disadvantaged urban and rural communities, while also helping their students rise above their academic expectations.

Allen, who grew up in Orange County, was nominated by his former student, current law school candidate Fabiola Ortiz Perez. “Mr. Allen was my history teacher freshman year of high school.

“He instilled in me that there was more to life than what I envisioned for myself. I graduated from UCLA with honors, and this would have never been possible without him,” she said during the 2021 Outstanding Teachers of America awards ceremony.

When presented with the award, Allen said he has learned that in educating “we do what we do best when we provide opportunities for our students to be themselves so that they can have the opportunities that others in their shoes weren’t ever going to get.”

The next school board meeting is set for Tuesday, Feb. 15. The GGUSD is a K-12 district serving most of Garden Grove and portions of Anaheim, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster.